Although most Nikon followers
would believed strongly the second zoom lense was the popular 4.3~8.6cm f/3.5-22 Zoom-Nikkor Auto that introduced a few years later
in 1963; but that was not entirely true because as early as end of 1961, Nikon showcased
two zoom lenses which have caught the entire photographic community by surprise.
The first was high speed lens with a medium zoom range, 3.5~8.5cm
f/2.8~4.0-16 Zoom-Nikkor Auto*, but for some unknown reasons, the
lense with its amazing lens speed has never being officially marketed. While on the
other hand, a bulky lens with a wide zoom range but with a moderate lens speed, 200~600mm
f/9.5~10.5-32 Zoom-Nikkor Auto
has been introduced earlier in September, 1961. Thus, to be more accurate, the popular
43~86mm was actually Nikon's third zoom lense in production. Incidentally, the compact
zoom was also being widely regarded as one of the world's best selling MF zoom lens
in 35mm photography.

Supplement: A lens type of zoom
design continuously varies its focal length, without shifting the focal plane, by
moving part or in full of the optical lens elements. While some of the lens groups
move to change the focal length other groups also shift to maintain sharp focus and
the selected aperture throughout the zoom range. The ratio between the longest and
the shortest focal lengths is called the "zoom". Nikon called
theirs as "Zoom-Nikkor".

Years that followed, Nikon
adopted a more cautious approach in deciding the appropriate types of zoom lenses
to be introduced to the Nikkor lens family as, firstly, with their prevailing manufacturing
facilities at the time high quality zoom lenses were very difficult to design and
manufactured according to exacting lens spec. Secondly, despite zoom lenses encompassed
many convenience but early versions were still fell short in optical quality one
would expect them to be. However, the process of introduction of these lenses although
was slow but it was steady as over the 20 years period, Nikon has ensured only zoom
lenses of practical lens type and range be included in their lens family. See table
below for a rough indication (Lenses shown are major announcement but excludes various
possible cosmetic updates of previous introduced versions):

As you can notice, Nikon's
lens development program was concentrated at zoom range at the wider end rather than
at longer focal lengths. The first wideangle zoom, Zoom-Nikkor 28~45mm was only being introduced late in
1975/6 and it was also the first zoom lens that broke the technical barrier at 28mm
focal length by a camera manufacturer.
It took Nikon optical
engineers another few more years in an intense lens development program to enable
zoom lens with 25mm picture angle be realized in 1979 (Zoom-Nikkor 25~50mm f/4.0).

Amidst the aggression on marketing
of both Nikon cameras and Nikkor lenses that started to take off during this period
of time, a few significant events have happened which may have cast a long term influence
over acceptance of zoom lenses. First, the epoch-making Zoom-Nikkor 80~200mm f/4.5
which received rave reviews was followed by another high quality wideangle Zoom-Nikkor
35~70mm f/3.5 lens with outstanding sharpness. Both of these lenses have changed
general perception towards low optical quality synonymous with older zoom types.
Next, fruitful research and deployment of "ED" (Extra-Low Dispersion) glass
into design of zoom lenses has enabled a new breed of high quality zoom lenses to
appear.

Lastly, some fascinating Nikkor
zoom lenses such as Zoom-Nikkor
50~300mm f/4.5 Auto
that offers a magnificant 6X zoom-ratio and super telephoto zoom lenses such as Zoom-Nikkor
360~1200mm f/11 ED,
along with a CPU aided Zoom-Nikkor
1200-1700mm f/5.6~8.0s P ED-IF
to offer an Incredibly wide selection of super telephoto focal lengths were made
possible with use of computer aided design, new found optical glass technology and updated manufacturing facilities.
Combination of these factors has resulted optical engineers to develop a new zooming system which
enabled them to simultaneously eliminate previous stumbling blocks of extreme distortion,
poor minimum focusing distance and excessive front element diameter in the design
of high quality zoom lenses. This infancy
period in zoom lens development has eventually pave the way for a rapid development
of Manual Focus Nikkor zoom lenses that eventually began to blossom fully in numbers,
varieties, range and performance at the next decade in 1980. Naturally, if we include
latest inclusion of modern AF zoom such as incrediable wideangle zoom 17-35mm f/2.8D
ED-IF AF-S Zoom-Nikkor, Nikon almost* carries the widest extension of focal
lengths on both ends in a wide selection of zoom range from 17mm to 1700mm ! *As at18/02/2003, Canon has a wideangle zoom
in EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM lense.

Note: Lenses during this
period were mainly crowded between focal length of 35 to 200mm.

Unlike prime
lenses with a single focal length, most appealing aspect presents in a typical
zoom lense is its ability to allow the photographer be focused on a subject with
the lens and then, by a zoom control on the lens (either in the form of single push
& pull design or dual rings control), to change focal length to alter the image
size at will on film. This mechanism has enabled a zoom lense to substitute many
prime lenses with a single lens. Design of a zoom lense can be very complex as it
may use up to many glass elements within a design and in a mechanical assembly that
requires high precision and extremely close manufacturing tolerances. A typical zoom
may require all the lens elements it encompasses within to move in a group or only
some be moved independently to alter the focal length. In an ideal zoom lens design,
one would expect only the focal length be changed while it can still retain a constant
aperture and optical aberrations be control at absolute minimal level as the image
size increases on film plane as it zooms and focuses across the entire focal length.
One common problem encountered by optical engineers is to meet up with market demand
for compactness and lightweight in a zoom lens - while lenses with constant aperture
may not be easy to design or produce during that time, a compromised method was to
alter the aperture value while zoom range increases to enable reduction of weight
and dimension of the lens - this was still widely used in today's modern zoom lens
design.

From a user's
point of view, zoom lenses presents the photographer with an entirely new way of
lens handling in photography. In one lens, it gives you a wide choice of focal lengths
without having to carry extra lenses. You can change focal lengths quickly, and therefore
change coverage, without actually having to change lenses or your shooting position.
Next, it substitutes the needs on cropping processed images in the darkroom as the
process can be done via the camera's viewfinder during shooting.

Basically,
zoom lenses change conventional ways of how we shoot pictures and may even provides a creative challenge to a
photographer of how to make the best out of its basic designing concept and overall
convenience it provides. One
of the selling point of zoom lenses often "over emphasized" by manufacturers
during those days was its ability to create unique "zoom blurs" - a popular
eye-catching photographic technique by zooming the lens using a slow shutter speed
as it can impart a feeling of motion to even ordinary stationary subjects. Well,
other than the creative aspect, that has a lot to do with prevailing film types available
at the time where seemingly film manufacturers found it hard to keep up with the
fast pace in development by camera/lense manufacturers. On a practical front, a common
trick in using these lenses is by focus at a zoom range to its longest focal length
first as depth of field will be smallest at that setting to ensure focusing is more
accurate before changing back to a predefined shorter focal length. Next, as most
MF SLR cameras available at the time usually provide center-weighted average metering,
you can also actually make use the longest focal length in a zoom to act as a spot
meter to compare meter readings when you feel unsure of the meter reading in a particular
tricky scene. Whatever it is, the
sheer speed of focal length changing, improved lens performance/handling and an overall cheaper
entry cost into SLR photography are few main reasons contributed to its gradual widespread
popularity over the years.

However, despite constant improvement
and enhancement made to the design of high quality zoom lenses, these lenses still
have a few drawbacks in general. For situations requiring high maximum apertures
such as sports or action photography, fixed focal length lenses still have the edge
and "generally" - they may offer a better optical quality if an equivalent
focal length of a zoom lense is compared. In particular when handling backlit shooting,
zoom lenses often perform miserably in comparison. Although I would believe Nikon
did (and still does) produced many good Nikkor zoom lenses, but I might not entirely agree
every lenses they made are classics.

I know my reservation could
make some potential "virtual enemies" out there but as a user, I
think I still have to stand by what I have firmly believed - purely from a perspective
of a consumer. But undeniably, with
high-quality zoom lenses of modem design such as current AF Zoom Nikkors, I know what we believed in the old
days could be just theoretical rather than actual as it used to be true that a zoom lens couldn't
match the picture quality of a comparable single-focal-length lens in the same range but modern lenses with such incredible
lens specifications may made anyone still carrying the old mindset settled for good
easily. However, old commercial culture practiced by respective manufacturers still
persists and thus, we still have to cough out more if we want something real good
from them in performance - that same old equation is just what I cannot digest thus
far and so I have to revert back to use my MF series of Nikkor optic.

Credit: MCLau®, who has helped to rewrite
some of the content appeared this site. Chuck Hester® who has been helping
me all along with the development of all these Nikon websites;LarsHolst Hansen, 'Hawkeye'
who shares the same passion I have; Ms Rissa, Sales manager
from Nikon Corporation Malaysia for granting permission to use some of the official
content; TedWengelaar,Holland
who
has helped to provide many useful input relating to older Nikkor lenses; Some of the references
on production serial numbers used in this site were extracted from Roland Vink's website; HiuraShinsaku from Nikomat
Club Japan. Lastly,
to all the good people who has contributed their own expeience, resources or kind
enough granted permission to use their images of their respective optic in this site.
It is also a site to remember a long
lost friend
on the Net.Note:certain content and
images appeared in this site were either scanned from official marketing leaflets
& brochures published by Nikon and/or contribution from surfers who claimed originality
of their work for educational purposes. The creator of the site will not be responsible
for may discrepancies arise from such dispute except rectifying them after verification."Nikon", "Nikkormat", "Nippon Kokagu
KK"
& "Nikkor" are registered
tradename of Nikon Corporation Inc., Japan. Site made with an Apple IMac.